Packing

 I really don’t like moving much. Unfortunately, I do have plenty of experience with it though! Yesterday morning Roy and I headed to town to try to find boxes of some sort to pack our things in. We settled on plastic boxes that cost a small fortune! They don’t have rubbermaids over here, but they did have a brittle plastic variety that we thought might work if we don’t overload them. But, on our way through town, I happened to see some people unloading a truck, and there was a huge pile of actual cardboard boxes on the ground beside it! Roy checked, and they said that they would “sell” us the empty boxes. I have moved a lot of times, but I have never bought used boxes before! Anyway, we got some of those too, and we are using them to house our library.We worked all day long yesterday in the intense heat, and got most of the books packed, and the middle storage room emptied! That was a wonderful accomplishment, but it feels like the tip of the iceberg. We don’t have much at all….for American standards….but we have a LOT of stuff for Asian standards! Just the basics for 13 people is a lot of stuff! We finally decided to limit each child to one plastic box full of personal belongings. Many groans, and headaches resulted from that announcement, but we are being relentless in our demands. After all, there don’t appear to be any conference moving vans in sight! The good part is that our neighbors and friends will be thrilled to get what we cannot take.Hannah and Destiny were rather disturbed by all the packing. Destiny felt the need to be held considerably more than normal, and Hannah went around busily unpacking the things that she felt she could not live without. I tried to explain to her that she will get to keep the things that are PACKED, but she does not understand it yet, she thinks that it looks like I am taking away all her stuff. Even Meme and Memewah questioned me closely to make sure that they could go with me, and they clung to me at every idle moment. The older girls also are feeling the strain, since they have lived in this area their whole lives. Last night, an argument erupted between the older girls, and we had quite the time getting them all calmed down again. Moving is never easy, but its difficulty seems to be compounded by the number of children that you have!Our long grueling day ended with a refreshing rainstorm, which was a welcome relief, but the rain also decided to come right on through the roof and our beds got soaked, our computers got soaked, we got soaked…it made us really glad that we are going to move! The kids ended up having a slumber party in the dorm, since the roof of the dorm is still intact. This morning it looks like we are having a rag mans picnic with all the bedding hanging out to dry. And, God is good in that my computer seems to have dried out just fine, and still works perfectly, in spite of its bath.